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Police increase presence in haredi London neighborhood

Police are stepping up their presence in a haredi Jewish neighborhood of London after swastika posters were placed in a playground there four days in a row, JTA reported on Friday.

Local police have increased patrols in Stamford Hill and are investigating the matter, the report said.

The local branch of Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer security group, first reported the posters to police Monday, and they have appeared every day since then.

The playground is next to a Jewish senior home, many of whose residents are Holocaust survivors, noted JTA.

Stamford Hill Shomrim’s Shulem Stern told the Jewish Chronicle website on Friday that the posters have sparked “a sense of anxiety and fear amongst local parents.”

“The daubing of Nazi symbols in a place where Jewish children study and play is an act of racism intended to spread fear and alarm,” Marie van der Zyl, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told the Chronicle.

Anti-Semitic incidents have been on the rise in Europe in general and specifically in Britain, where there was a 61 percent increase in anti-Semitic crime in 2015.